Shanghai. April 24. INTERFAX-CHINA - Skyworth has launched a 32-inch high-definition TV in accordance with China's national 3C convergence standard known as intelligent grouping and resource sharing (IGRS), an IGRS Working Group official said today.
The IGRS-standardized TVs can be connected to PCs, enabling users to upload video and audio files to TVs, IGRS Working Group official, Zhang Deqian, told Interfax.
"This is the first phase of mass production of IGRS-standardized home appliances in China. Skyworth has started research and development on an updated version of IRGS-standardized high-definition TVs," said Zhang.
The first 200 units of the IGRS TVs are now available in Shenzhen and Guangzhou, priced at RMB 9,999 ($1295.2) each, he said.
He noted that the updated TVs are expected to support more interconnected services between home appliances.
"When users pick up a call on a mobile phone in the future, they will be able to connect their mobile handsets to IGRS TVs and view the caller on the TV. We are also thinking of connecting TVs with fixed phones and DVD players in the next one or two years," Zhang said.
The IGRS standard was approved by the Ministry of Information Industry last year as China's national 3C convergence industry standard, aiming to enable intelligent grouping, resource sharing and service collaboration among information devices, consumer electronics and communication devices.
For Zhang, technologies needed for developing home appliances that can be inter-connected are already mature, but the problem of whether customers are ready for such products remains.
"The major challenge for the mass production of IGRS-standardized products is whether customers will choose the products when they have plenty of choices of common home appliances," Zhang said. "Price competition is intensifying among home appliance manufacturers and the concept of integrating the resources on the products is still quite new."
He noted that at present, the most important thing to do is to build the concept and offer more opportunities for customers to experience the functions of IGRS-standardized products.
IGRS Working Group was established in 2003 by five electronic product manufacturers in China including Lenovo, TCL, Konka, Skyworth and Greatwall Computer.